Payment Hub

21 Benefits of Online Payment Portals that Boost Business Productivity

Published  |  10 min read
Key Takeaways
  • One of the ways payment portals boost business productivity is by automating manual processes.
  • Another benefit of online customer portals is that invoices and payments can be sent and received much faster.
  • Online payments also increase sales and customer loyalty, allowing your business to grow.

If you want to increase business productivity, one way is to offer online payments through a customer portal. This article will cover all 21 main benefits (separated into 4 major sections) of online customer portals and how they can increase productivity for your business.

Illustration list of how a customer portal online improves business productivity.

21 Benefits of Online Payments

With online payments, you'll be able to increase business productivity like never before. And here's why:

Greater Efficiency and Convenience

Online payment portals offer greater efficiency and convenience in the following ways:

It's Quick and Easy to Make Payments

If you've ever made a payment through a payment portal, you know how much more convenient it is than other methods. Making things easier for your customers eliminates barriers to entry—meaning they'll be more likely to make payments on time, or even early.

Your business will also save time and money by avoiding the need to call customers individually to request payment. And, if you choose Clarity Payment Hub as your payment portal, you also won't need to directly interact with banks and credit card companies, which typically charge fees and require monthly budgeting. Processing payments through your own system (or using Clarity Payment Hub) is more cost-effective and efficient.

Get the Best Payment Portal for Your Business

Clarity Payment Hub integrates with your ERP and payment source to capture funds from any orders, bills, or invoices. Let us show you how professional payment portals are done.

Online Billing Fulfills Customer Expectations

Online payments are pretty commonplace nowadays, and customers usually expect there to be an online portal of some kind to make payments in. Paper billing is rapidly becoming a thing of the past (if it isn't already).

In an online payment portal, it's good to give customers the option to opt in or out of paperless (online) billing. Depending on your industry, you may want the default to be online billing and give them the option to opt out if they want to receive bills in the mail.

Fulfilling customer expectations is vital to the success of your company. Without a way to make payments online, customers may just opt out of doing business with you.

Convenience and Ease-of-Use Drive Behavior

On a related note, there is a much greater trend towards opting for electronic options for various things that used to be done in-person. While precipitated by the outbreak of COVID-19, the trend has continued long past when restrictions were lifted, largely driven by people's desire for convenience.

People value efficiency and ease-of-use, and electronic options such as apps and websites available on smartphones offer a quick and easy way to pay bills and access information from anywhere, without the need for paper statements that can get lost or delayed. This shift in consumer behavior reflects a strong and increasing preference for streamlined and efficient ways of conducting business, which is expected to continue in the future.

Customer accessing online payment portal from a laptop.

Accounts Are Easier to Manage with Online Portals

Account management has never been simpler with electronic portals. Online tools take care of transactions, so you don't need to worry about running them. You'll also save time by eliminating or reducing this administrative task.

You can also offer customers easier account access through mobile apps that allow users 24/7 monitoring from anywhere. Banks can also take advantage of offering this service to their customers.

Paperless Billing Saves Time and Money

With an online payment portal and paperless billing, you'll save on printing and mailing costs associated with paper billing via mail. You'll also get your payments faster and speed up billing processes in your business.

Plus, you won't need to take as many phone or office-based payments, saving you and your team valuable time.

It's Better for the Environment

With lots of people becoming more environmentally-conscious, your business following suit with an online payment portal will improve public opinion of your organization. People will be more willing to do business with you if they see you are doing your part to reduce your carbon footprint.

Decreases Days Sales Outstanding

By using an online payment portal and e-billing, you can reduce the amount of time it takes to collect payments from customers. This time period is referred to as your "day's sales outstanding" (DSO). The longer your DSO, the less money you earn. With e-billing, your customers receive their invoices quickly and can make payments right away, reducing the time it takes to process payments and improving your cash flow.

This is a significant advantage over paper billing via mail, which results in delays of up to several weeks before customers even receive the invoices, let alone make the payments and send it back to you.

Using electronic billing methods ensures quick turnaround times, keeping everyone organized and reducing stress (on both your employees and your business's finances).

Automations Minimize Manual Labor and Errors

Paper billing via mail or inputting card information over the phone can result in errors in processing, since there are more manual steps and therefore potential for human error. Errors mean extra work for your team and even more delays, which can result in lost revenue and potentially damage your credit if accounts are not settled on time.

A high administrative workload (i.e., printing and mailing, answering phones, etc.) can increase stress and burnout and take valuable time away from tasks that help the business advance.

With an online customer portal, however, many of those manual steps will be a thing of the past with workflow automations. Employees can spend their time on more crucial tasks and leave the grunt work to the technology—which automatically pulls the invoice from your ERP and posts it in the customer's online portal.

Learn More About Clarity Payment Hub

In today's fast-paced business world, any edge you can give your team is valuable, so consider outsourcing some of your business's administrative tasks to advanced eCommerce software. It could be the key to unlocking your team's full potential.

 

Improve Business Productivity with Business System Integration

With Clarity's integration technology, all your systems will stay up-to-date with any changes. Connect your ERP, CRM, CMS, and other business systems—even custom ones—to your eCommerce platform and Payment Hub.

Enhanced Security Features

Another way online payments improve business productivity is by enhancing security. Here's how:

Electronic Billing Eliminates Risks from Paper Billing

People rarely use checks nowadays, and cash is less popular than ever. Paper billing, however, forces people to use one of those two methods to make payments.

Here are the problems that may arise from using cash or checks:

  • The mailing address might be wrong; someone could make an error when writing down the address or use an outdated address if the recipient moved recently.
  • Mail could be stolen, lost, or delivered to the wrong address by accident.
  • There's no way to confirm (without contacting the other party) if the payment or invoice was received.
  • Checks might bounce if there's not enough money in the customer's account by the time you deposit the check.
  • Having paper records for financial data incurs a risk of theft.
  • Paper records can be easily lost or damaged, resulting in data loss.
  • Lost or stolen data can profoundly impact your company's customer base and bottom line, as many customers will see your business as unreliable and switch to another provider.

Electronic payments have none of these problems. Offering a customer payment portal online eliminates the risks incurred from using cash, checks, and paper records in general.

With electronic billing, there's no physical paper that can get lost, stolen, or damaged. Online payments are transferred much faster and can be verified. Electronic records have numerous security measures that are always advancing, and data can be backed up to minimize the risk of data loss.

Secure online payments.

Online Payments Are Reliable and Secure

Online payments provide the greatest security when it comes to money transfers. Security features like encryption and tokenization keep consumers' information safe and protected from unauthorized access. Other transaction methods can't offer this level of protection.

With paper billing sent via mail, customers can't validate the payment has been received by your company. Your company also can't verify that a check is good until you try to deposit it.

Transactions that occur over the phone can also incur problems with manual error, such as if the representative mishears or mistypes the information or if the customer misspeaks.

On the other hand, an instant payment network has ways to instantly verify a payment method, which substantially reduces fraud risk. If someone accidentally mistypes a number, the system will let them know right away that it's not a valid form of payment. They can correct the error right away and send the payment on its merry way.

You Get Immediate Confirmation

Anyone who has ever sent or received payments through the mail or similar means knows that there is always a risk that the money will not make it to the intended recipient.

Not only is there the risk that the payment will get lost in the mail, but there is also no way to know for sure if it was received by the intended recipient. This can be extremely frustrating for both parties involved.

However, one of the benefits of online payments is the fact that you will always receive immediate confirmation when a transaction is successful. You don't need to worry about whether or not the money will make it to the intended recipient, as you will know right away that the payment was transferred successfully. This can be a huge relief for both businesses and individuals, especially when dealing with large sums of money.

Confirmation of electronic payment.

Increase Leads and Customer Loyalty

With online customer payment portals, you can increase leads and customer loyalty for your business in the following ways:

Attract More Customers with Online Payments

Offering online payment options is not only convenient for customers, but it can also be a selling point for your business. In today's digital world, many consumers prefer to conduct transactions online, and by offering this option, you can appeal to a wider customer base.

In fact, one study found that 83 percent of people want to pay bills online, using a mobile device or online portal [1]. Most people also want electronic invoices [1].

This preference for digital options extends to all industries, so offering online payments is a great way to make your business more competitive. By giving customers the option to pay electronically, you can make the process more convenient for them and give your business a valuable edge.

Keep Up with Consumer Trends

As the business landscape continues to evolve, it's becoming more and more important for companies to keep up with the latest trends.

Electronic payments are becoming increasingly popular. In 2022, digital payment use rose to 89 percent [2]. What's more, within the next two years, more than two-thirds of Americans expect to have a digital wallet, or multiple [2].

These trends show that electronic and online payments are important for any business to have, and that if they don't, they'll be left behind.

Self-Service Provides the Best Customer Experience

Another one of the benefits of online customer portals is that they provide a better customer experience with self-service. Customers can go into their portals to track orders, pay bills, set up autopayment, update address and payment information, review payment history, and keep track of their account balance—all from an easy-to-use interface that lets them interact at will.

Get all this and more with Clarity Payment Hub.

Because let's be honest, no one really wants to call and pay by phone. And you don't want to be calling them for payment either. Many people don't even own a checkbook, and only some might have some envelopes and stamps lying around. It'd be a huge chore to get all that stuff to send payment in the mail.

Convenience, and saving time and money in the process, is an extremely important part of a positive customer experience.

Customers often look at the entire package when evaluating their experience with a company. Keep offering benefits that add value for your customers, and they'll be happy and much more likely to do business with you again.

Engages Customers More Successfully

If your business meets consumers where they are—instead of making them come to you—you'll have much better success engaging them and getting ahead of your competitors. That means accepting online payments and having an online customer portal. Not doing so means distancing and alienating your customers from your business, which will drive customers away from you and towards your competitors.

Establishes Trust for the Customer

Online payments can create and improve the trust customers place in your business. You can do this with:

  • Secure payment gateways
  • SSL certificates
  • Easily accessible Privacy Policy and Terms of Service
  • Customer reviews and testimonials
  • Clear Return and Refund Policy
  • Available contact information
  • Transparent pricing
  • Secure account creation
  • Regular security audits
  • PCI DSS compliance
  • Prompt customer support

By providing the tools that customers prefer and rely on, businesses can show that they care about their customers' overall experience. This level of diligence to security, privacy, transparency, and customer support can make all the difference when it comes to winning customer trust.

Reduces Late Payments

From the perspective of both the customer and the company, online billing is a more efficient way to handle payments. Customers appreciate the convenience of being able to access their bills from anywhere and quickly submit them with minimal effort. This means they'll be less likely to put it off until later (or until they forget about it).

This timely payment method also benefits companies by decreasing tardiness, shortening DSO, and reducing the need for reminder letters. In other words, online billing is a win-win solution that saves customers and businesses alike time and money.

Online payment portals also offer the ability to receive email alerts when a bill is due, making it even easier for customers to stay on top of their finances and pay invoices on time.

Advanced Features of Online Payment Portals

Online payment portals offer advanced features that greatly benefit your business and your customers.

Auto-Renewal Is Extremely Useful

Auto-renewal for services or products that customers want to continue receiving over time is a great way to increase customer loyalty and engagement. Auto-renewal happens with recurring payments, also known as a subscription. This means that customers can set up their payments to be withdrawn automatically from their accounts on a regular basis (usually monthly or yearly), in exchange for continuing to receive a product or service.

So instead of having to manually purchase the same thing every month, they can enable auto-renewal, and the payment for that service or product will automatically be drawn from their account when it's time to pay.

That way, customers can enjoy continued service without having to worry about making payments or purchases again. Plus, you don't have to send repeat invoices for the same thing over and over, nagging the customer every month for another payment.

A significant number of people opt for auto-renewal for a number of different services. Subscriptions also mean a steady, reliable income for your business. This is something that can be set up in an online customer payment portal.

"Buy Now" Features Increase Sales

In most cases, the fewer steps it takes to do something, the better. "Buy Now" or "Pay Now" buttons allow customers to instantly purchase something without going through the whole checkout process. It's fast, convenient, and intuitive. Any good payments software will allow you to implement this feature on your website.

With fewer steps, customers have less time to talk themselves out of buying something. Offering a "Buy Now" feature along with the traditional "Add to Cart" button will appeal to both types of customers—those who want to buy it now, hassle-free, and those who want to add it to a cart with other items and check them all out at once, or who might want to review the item again before purchasing.

You Can Accept All Kinds of Payments

In today's digital world, there are more options than ever for how customers can pay their invoices. From traditional methods like credit/debit cards, cash, or check, to modern electronic options like e-Checks, PayPal, and digital wallets, businesses can provide a wide range of payment choices to suit their customers' needs. This flexibility is especially helpful as electronic currencies become more popular.

By offering a variety of payment methods, businesses can make it easy and convenient for their customers to pay invoices in the way that suits them best. As a result, businesses can improve customer satisfaction and build loyalty.

Quick and Easy Setup with Clarity Payment Hub

When you are considering adding new features to your organization, it is important to evaluate all of your options. Clarity Payment Hub is a viable option that has seamless integrations, so you don't need to handle the heavy lifting.

The Clarity team will also provide support during your set-up to make it as smooth as possible. Plus, Clarity Payment Hub is designed—like all our software—to grow with your business, so you won't need to change systems further down the road. This way, you'll be able to fully take advantage of your business systems.

Conclusion

Customers are more enthusiastic about digital options as they become more common across all sectors. They enjoy these electronic platforms and will seek businesses that provide them. Because of this, your company needs to offer online payments if you hope to be successful. Online payment portals are attractive to consumers and has many advantages for both them and you. It also reduces the amount of work you do on a daily basis and empowers your team to devote more time to more vital processes that allows the business to scale. Learn more about how you can increase business productivity with Clarity Payment Hub.

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We offer a free, no-obligation discovery session with our experts, where they'll review your business needs with you to help you determine the best solution and features. Click the button below to get started improving your business productivity with online payments!

FAQ

 

In recent years, tokenization, encryption, and PCI-DSS compliance have been the pinnacle of online payment security. With tokenization, even if a hacker did access payment information, all they'd get would be a string of random characters, and not your credit card information.

 

Tokenization is a highly secure method of protecting financial data. It works by replacing the customer's credit card details with a randomly generated alphanumerical "token" that's 13 to 19 characters long. This token doesn't have any details that could lead to the identification of the card number or the customer. Every single transaction has a unique token.

With tokenization securing customers' payment information, all that's actually processed or transmitted by merchants is the randomized token—meaning it's useless to hackers.

 

Advantages: Online payments provide increased business productivity with greater efficiency, convenience for customers and your staff, advanced security, lower costs, faster transaction times, increased sales, greater customer loyalty, and more.

Disadvantages: Online payments can provide a challenge for businesses that don't have the software to support it. Your business will also benefit from having advanced security features and PCI DSS compliance. Hiring a PCI-compliant development company like Clarity Ventures will make it much easier for you to implement these systems.

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Autumn Spriggle is a Content Writer at Clarity Ventures who stays up to date on the latest trends in eCommerce, software development, and related topics to provide readers with the latest and greatest. She strives to help people like you realize the full potential for their eCommerce business.